LogAWBO Smoke On The Water-Jason-9

Game log for the 2023/01/22 session of Apocalypse World Burned Over - Smoke On The Water, as taken by Jason

Live day to day rolls:

• Jacob - drugs are free, favors are easy
• Churban - leisure is easy, liberty is hard
• Finch - downtime is easy, know-how is hard
• Crill - status is free, ammo is easy
• John Paul Jones - Favors are free, fuel is easy

JP gets the Betty Jo gassed up, and heads for Finnegan's Shoal to get paid. Crill comes along for immoral support. They find that the Shoal is still half the size it was before the waterspout. The Tuscany is moored out away from the Shoal, in a different place than usual. Wendigo seems delighted to see him, and admits that the bomb was maybe a touch over the top. He blames his bomb-maker for an excess of enthusiasm, and intimates that said explosives guy is no longer with them. (Is he with anyone but the fishes? Signs point to no.) He is nonetheless happy to pay up. Whole areas of the oceans are less safe than they used to be, which for his crew, means more business. Wendigo also lets JP know that Bantam has been asking about him.

JP asks Wendigo to broker a sit-down with Bantam, and Wendigo is happy to... if JP wil get Crill to do a job with Tuscany. JP faithfully relays the request, but the resulting conversation is so awkward between them that it leaves them both uncomfortable. In the end, they both go back to visit with Wendigo.

Wendigo is very happy to see Crill again. Crill affects to wonder why he's even in that meeting. Wendigo explains that he owes someone a favor, and that favor requires some violence, but that violence shouldn't be seen to be done by Wendigo. Ergo, Crill! Wendigo is paying for it, but Jax is the actual client, and the violence may not take place in Finnegan's Shoal. Crill is on board, so Wendigo arranges for JP to have his sitdown with Bantam.

Meanwhile, also in the Shoal, Finch has tied up and started bringing loot to Prentiss. The tech dealer mentions that since some lunatic sank the Tarawa, he has a new salvage opportunity. Not all the helicopters could take off before the ship sank, and those avionics would bring in some serious coin. Finch is worried that there's already got to be a big rush on, so he offers to look into it, but he's not excited about taking a three-man crew into that sort of situation just so he can make a solo dive on a contested wreck. Finch therefore starts looking to see if he can hire help. He can't. This place isn't the same since the waterspout. He decides to go looking for Jax.

He finds Jax negotiating the penalty for a busted deal between two traders. He waits for her to finish, and notices that she's a lot more tense than last time he saw her. He asks if the two guys they brought back from Upwell are doing OK, and she confirms they are. He asks if she can recommend anyone to pull security for a dive. Just then, Crill turns up. Crill and Pickles are very happy to see one another. Crill asks for a private word with Jax. Finch excuses himself.

Crill explains that Wendigo sent him, which makes Jax happy, since it means Wendigo is keeping up his part of a bargain. It's actually two things Jax needs done. One, there's a trawler, the Kite, that used to frequent Finnegan's Shoal. They were his best customers for his catch, with right of first refusal. Since the waterspout, the captain of the Kite has decided he doesn't want to do business anymore. She needs that decision reversed. Jax makes it clear that he wants the business back, not the Captain's head in a bucket. Second, he wants Crill to help Finch out with his security problem. The Kite might be found at Hoddard's Rock, or maybe the Drain.

Jacob's new crew is settling in. Eloise seems to fit in pretty well, and her people are professional. When someone says, "ding," to announce the arrival of a new patient, they swing right into action. The new guest is a girl, heavily pregnant, long hair, facial tattoos, accompanied by two wirey men. The girl is Lilly, but nobody there knows her. All three are soaking wet. Neither of the men look like the blond thief who once punched JP in the face, but they look like they're of a similar type. Jacob admits her, of course, and she's sent into the treatment center.

Churban's already there, and is very surprised by the sudden increase in activity. There's an almost instant standoff when Eloise tries to clear both of the men out of the room, but they don't want to leave. Jacob talks them into going into a waiting room with an observation window. Churban doesn't recognize any of these people, for whatever that's worth. Jacob finds that Lilly's belly feels mushy, not firm, and she won't stop screaming. He uses his healing mojo to take away er pain, remove any infections in her system, and stop any inappropriate bleeding. The two wirey men relax visibly when the screaming stops, which doesn't mean Eloise or her people stand down. Lilly still isn't coherent, even after the pain stops. She says "it burns," and "it shouldn't be like this." She also says, "It's never been like this before." The doc gets out the instruments and gets to work.

The ultrasound can't find a fetus. He steps out and asks her escorts what set this off. They think she pushed herself too hard and triggered something. One says she should be resting; the other looks like he wants to argue but can't say anything, and has to resort to a vague, "She has duties to attend to." The escort with black hair is hardline, and the one with tan hair is more concerned. There's some sort of competition between them. Both of them seem oriented on Lilly. They aren't quite subservient to her, but she's important to them. When Jacob asks about her condition, Tan blurts out that she's pregnant, and seems to believe it. When Jacob explains that he can't find a fetus, they're very confused. They were sure she was pregnant. Black asks when birth is due, but since the doc can't find a fetus, he can't hardly answer that question, which makes it a difficult question to answer.

While all this is happening, Churban can't resist the urge to open his mind to the maelstrom and see if there's metaphysical nonsense at work here. Over the sound of the storm, he can hear the sound of babies crying. Not just a baby, but a multiple of babies crying. He suddenly feels something hot in the back of his head, and in his left eye. Those are both places he remembers being operated on.

Lilly starts screaming again, yelling that it's time, it must be time.

One of Wendigo's people tells JP that the meet is going to happen on the Tuscany. It will be just him and Bantam, neither armed, security to be provided by the pirate crew. Bantam shows up a few minutes after JP, and tells him he's a hard man to find. JP gets the feeling that Bantam might be be willing to talk about all their shit in front of all these people, but at least Wendigo's security seems to be on point. Bantam wants to know where Lilly is, period. JP truthfully tells her that he took her to Hoddard's Rock, and she was there, with some dangerous people, last time he saw her. Also, she was pregnant. Bantam goes into a cursing froth when he hears that news, but also, scared. JP tries to get him to explain why he's so worked up, but Bantam won't tell him unless JP offers to help him. JP's interested, and Bantam says sure, because they need to "kill that bitch." He wants her dead before she can give birth, which is a little odd. He says she took something from him, and he has a bad feeling about what will happen next. Bantam tells JP that if he will help Bantam see this through to the end, they will be brothers. Wendigo declares that business is done and suggests celebratory binge drinking. Bantam can't wait and wants to leave directly.

Churban gets up to leave, having no particular desire to sit in on a delivery, but finds time to warn Jacob that there's squirrely metaphysical shit going on. Jacob preps for delivery and finds that Lilly isn't even dilated. She's already pushing, so he begins to prep for a tear. He keeps trying to find something on the ultrasound, and failing, and then suddenly he hears something drop into the pan he put under her. The sound of her screams changes and the bedpan fills up with bright orange fish eggs. He gets Eloise a panicked look, but of course she has no idea. He starts gibbering and staggers away from her. The two escorts rush into the room, followed by Eloise and her guards. The guards are there for Jacob, but the escorts have rushed over to Lilly. Black goes to pull something out of his backpack, and Eloise starts screaming, "Hands where I can see them, hands!"

The doc reaches down to his belt and pushes the button on his pain wave projector. One of Eloise's guards shoots Tan. Black staggers, but still manages to dump whatever was in his backpack into the pail of fish eggs, as Lilly keeps oozing more into the bucket. Tan goes for Eloise with a scalpel.

Churban rushes back in and starts screaming at the escorts and Lilly, yelling that he can't believe they did this to her, just like they did it to him, and they're never going to stop doing it, they're all fucking maniacs. Jacob's losing his shit but eventually manages to stammer, "Stop them!" Eloise pulls out a baton, whacks the scalpel out of Tan's hand, and then they secure Black, who won't stop reaching for the fish eggs. They throw him to the ground and roughly zip-tie him. Churban yells for someone to burn the eggs, which freaks Lilly out. She tries to run for it, Eloise refuses to hit her, Churban grabs her to slow her down, and Jacob injects a sedative into her. Churban asks to be put in a room with Lilly, and the doc asks Eloise to make it so, and to lock the two escorts up separately. As they're carted away, Black tells Tan, "I told you they wouldn't understand."

Crill emerges from the meeting with Jax and finds Finch. Finch lets Shoeshine and Lil' Abner know that they're going to see if they can scrounge some salvage from the Tarawa wreck. They head out there, and it's neither as good as Finch had hoped or as bad as he feared. People are salvaging the wreck already, including what look like some pretty competent teams, and people are defending their spots, but nobody is coming after the Kayak and trying to make them leave the scene entirely. One crew seems very well organized and has already salvaged a CIWS. That's a double clue. It means they're good at salvaging and not afraid of someone trying to help themselves to the goods.

JP's bomb blew out one side of the Tarawa's bottom, and she sort of spiraled as she went down. The helicopters likely went overboard well before she sank, so they'd be well away from the wreck. Well away would also improve the Kayak's security. However, it's clear to Finch that if he's noticed bringing up a haul, people might give some thought to taking it. Best move would to keep their loot tied off under the ship, so they they can disguise things.

They move out, find the right place, and identify three helos- a Sea Stallion, a Blackhawk, and a Kiowa. Finch decides to just cut out the avionics consoles in each and to just never entirely haul up the dive bags. During the dive, he thinks it might be possible to retrieve an entire Kiowa, although getting out towing an entire helicopter under the boat might be more than a small challenge. What's life without a little challenge? They manage to recover the helo, and then Finch stages an argument with Abner, so that anyone listening will think their whole job is a bust. It seems to work pretty well.

Back on Finnegan's Shoal, JP and Bantam set out for Hoddard's Rock. Bantam transfers the hostage he took from Upwell, Temujin, back to the Betty Jo. Once they're alone, JP asks him what she stole. He says she did something so he's shooting blanks now, and he didn't like it. The more time they spend together, the more JP feels unsettled. Bantam was a big deal at Brennan's Fetch, but he's been gone from there a long time, and he just keeps hanging around other places, for obvious reason.

They arrive at Hoddard's Rock and find that Lilly is long gone. Also, Heyward hears that the ship is back and goes into immediate hiding. The Rock broadly unhappy to see JP, but not quite at the point of refusing him service. JP takes Bantam to the bar where he met Lilly back when, and hear that she's in Upwell. They promptly head back home.

Finch brings the Kayak back to Finnegan's Shoal. An unfamiliar speedboat comes close enough to check them out, and Crill gives them the evil eye. That doesn't seem to deter them, so he shows them his flamethrower. They decide to go away now. Finch them moors the Kayak in deep water and tells Prentiss he's going to need a barge and a crane. The dealer doesn't understand, but Finch pushes him to shut up and do it. When the barge finally appears, it's a heinous relic of a bygone era, the sort of shitbox that might make a person see the upside of the end of the world. Prentiss is perfectly happy to see a couple bags full of avionics, and then just dumbfounded to see a whole Kiowa pop up. He jumps up and down and gives Finch a great big hope. They agree this squares things and makes Finch and Jacob sole owners of the Kayak. Lil' Abner is happy to return to work with Prentiss.

Crill asks Finch for help finding the Kite, which Finch is happy to work on. Word has it that the Kite would likely go to Hoddard's Rock or Upwell, because they both have large enough markets to absorb the entire catch, and are reasonably well-ordered. It was sighted west of the Shoal just a day ago, so it's probably headed for Upwell.

Back at Upwell, Jacob sedates Tan and does a careful medical examination. He finds artfully concealed gills. Under the hair on his head, he has a bit of a crest. When he's relaxed, you can see the webbing between his fingers. Eloise reports that nobody knows how Lilly or the escorts arrived, so Jacob shows her the gills. He decides to examine one of the eggs under a microscope, and confirms that it's a fish egg. It's roughly pea-sized, and doesn't seem much different from any other fish egg. Whatever's in there is too under-developed to look like much of anything. He asks Eloise for advice on what to do with the eggs, and she suggests that they could sell 'em to Leroy's, who would put them on the menu. Maybe these are mer-people. Jacob decides to drink.

Churban has another vision. It's time! He's been training hard for a long time. He, Merody, and a few others are there. Dr Defoe is there, too, off in the background, observing, but it's the training cadre who are in the foreground. They've been training, pushing, poking, prodding, and otherwise working on Churban for months. This is his chance to prove he's ready. They take him to an unfamiliar room in the complex. It's a cylinder, with a catwalk around the outside, and a pool in the middle of disgusting, stinking, greasy water. Someone throws a switch, and a bank of lights come on above and below the water. There are shapes in the water, looking humanoid. Each trainee is given a task: pick one, and kill it. Merody immediately kills one, from the catwalk, with her mind. One of the kids tries, fails, and has a seizure. Churban tries, and wakes up.

Churban starts trying to probe Lilly, but just as he thinks he's making contact, he feels that heat in his mind, the training kicks in, and she flatlines. Jacob comes rushing in and sees the weirdo standing over her. Churban holds up a hand preemtorily, then says, "Shit, it's what it looks like." He goes on to explain the vision he just had - he was trained to kill fish people with his mind, and the training suddenly kicked in. Jacob tries to revive Lilly, but thinks she's probably brain dead now. He tells Churban has has to go. Churban just sighs, hands the doctor the end of his IV, and says, "I'd tell you you were a better doctor than a human being, but who the fuck am I to talk?" Churban staggers out. The guards take him down in the elevator, and Jacob tells Eloise about Lilly's condition.

Churban goes looking for Momma June, and crashes there.

The next day, Bantam and John Paul show up. JP stops off at Momma June's, and catches up with Churban. They figure out that it was Lilly who was there. Churban is briefly terrified that he just killed Bantam's girlfriend and will be hunted to death, but then John Paul explains that Bantam wants her dead anyway. Churban is so relieved that for a moment, he thinks his lung has started working again.

Anyway, Eloise has put the word out to try to find out who brought the girl in, so it's easy for Bantam to get referred to Jacob. The doc promptly explains that Lilly wasn't pregnant, she just "crammed a bunch of fish eggs up her cooch". (Copyright 2023 GC). Bantam gets a little riled up, to the point where Eloise gives her guards the ready sign. JP gets him calmed down again. Bantam tells Jacob that Lilly and her brother (a big tall blond guy) came to him in Brennan's Fetch. The brother worked for him, she just hung around, but one thing led to another, and they hit it off. Then one day he woke up, and she had performed surgery of a personal nature on him, and she and her brother were gone. Bantam's not sure if they copulated or not. Jacob says, "So the fish weren't yours then?" Bantam starts to get riled up again. Anyway, he shows him Lilly's body, which is breathing on its own, and Bantam immediately proposes cutting her throat, and also the throats of anyone she was with. Then the doc shows Bantam the jar of fish eggs, and Bantam starts to wig again. The more Jacob tries to explain, the more Bantam doesn't want to understand. John Paul Jones reminds Jacob that both Churban and Finch think that the right treatment for these mer-people is to kill them and burn the bodies. Eloise, however, opines that it's not good for a place of healing to get a rep for killing patients and burning their bodies.

Finch and Crill also arrive, and Crill spots the Kite unloading. He watches, wanting to get a sense of how the boat is run and how Captain Benson operates. So far, they're just unloading their fish and taking it to the market, exactly as though they don't know that the most dangerous killer in 300 miles has been hired to coerce them. Crill just casually asks after Benson. One's about to point in the right direction, but the other punches him and says, "Don't you know who that is? We don't say shit about nothin'. Benson's away and may be back sometime." Crill tries to reassure them and points out that he's not all fancied up to kill people, he just wants to talk. They tell him to go to Leroy's Fish Market.

Finch and his dogs arrive at the hospital just in time to see Eloise and her guards pointing guns at JP and Bantam. He says, "Oh, this is a bad time, I'll come back later." Before he gets away, though Jacob calls out for him to get in there, so he puts his hands up and moves slowly toward them all. Jacob takes Finch in to look at some evidence, while Eloise tells JP and Bantam to take a seat. Jacob starts explaining. The story is so absurd that Finch asks if he's been drinking, to which Jacob readily confesses. Once Jacob shows him the webbing and gills, which Finch finds disturbing. Turns out Lilly has it too. Then Jacob points to the beaker of fish eggs and says, "That's her spawn." Finch cannot even process this shit. It's all a big joke, right? A horrible gross joke? He tells Jacob that they have business and when he wants to talk serious, the doc can come find him. Frank is distracted, though. He's after something under a cabinet, but the doc is fixated, and he has to grab him by the collar. On his way out, Finch asks JP if he's in on this too, and if he still thinks it's funny. The captain somehow manages to convince him that there's no joke here. It is reality, and reality is fucked up. Finch leaves anyway. Shoeshine is sad he can't come along.

Jacob, with no other options, opens his brain. Churban senses this and tells the maelstrom not to talk to the asshole who kicked him out of the infirmary. Jacob briefly senses the storm, but then everything goes calm, and he hears just a little rippling splashing of water. He feels super weird now, and asks JP and Bantam to come back tomorrow. JP tries to get Bantam on side, suggesting that brain dead is as good as dead, but Bantam isn't having it. She might wake up, after all. Only dead is dead. Jacob goes off on a sarcastic rant about how they should just burn everything and takes another big drink. He tells them to maybe come back tomorrow.

They go down to the docks to get some drinks, and Bantam turns to JP and says, "So, what's our plan to break in?"